


With the Beat of Wings

by orphan_account



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-18
Updated: 2013-05-18
Packaged: 2017-12-12 05:53:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/808049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: <i>Michael finds Gabriel by himself down on earth. Gabriel doesn't need to speak for Michael to know he's not coming back home.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	With the Beat of Wings

**Author's Note:**

> Although the SRS finished back in February, I only recently found that I had written this. It was probably one of my favourite from the writing challenge, so I fixed it up a bit and, well, here we are.

For the first time in hours, Gabriel hears the beating of wings. He feels the air shift in a familiar way, moving to accommodate wings of grandeur. He can sense the eyes that stare at him from a vessel, can almost see the growing tension that's planted in shoulder blades as soon as the other man arrives behind him. 

Gabriel turns to face his brother Michael.

Michael tries to smile, though it comes out more of a grimace. The younger angel has a pleasant look on his face, as if something amusing had just happened, though it was nothing more than a plastic fake. The blue eyes of his vessel bore into Gabriel's own amber, digging deeper and deeper into the other archangel, searching for even a glimmer of hesitance in him. The loss of Lucifer, the brother he had raised, left Michael colder than he's ever felt before.

The sounds of crickets echo around the two angels as they stare at one another, one man daring the other to make the first move. Even with the rebellion ended and Lucifer trapped in a cage, there was much left to repair in Heaven. Many of their own kind had fallen, and their home was in chaos. This wasn't the time for nonsense. 

Michael can tell from the way Gabriel's shoulders are slumped that he was hoping to avoid this confrontation. He can tell that the younger wanted to slip away quietly, without a word to any of his siblings. It was unavoidable, however. Michael had watched his brothers closely, was the one to help them grow into who they were now. He knew all their secrets and what their thought process was like. He knew that to expect, what thoughts they may have come up with.

He wants to reach out, to grab Gabriel and bring him back to Haven where he belongs. He longs to ask him not to leave them, to tell him that losing Lucifer was bad enough but losing him too would surely break him. Michael may have been the eldest, but even he had a breaking point. 

Slowly, he extended a hand towards him, gently as if the brunette were a skittish animal. Gabriel simply regarded it wearily before shaking his head, confirming Michael's suspicions. Gabriel was leaving. The rebellion was finally over, but he would still leave their home, most likely to follow in Lucifer's footsteps. His fall had shaken the youngest archangel down to his core, shaking his foundations, casting him in a world where brother turned against brother.

For a moment, Michael thinks he despises the human creations and what they've done to his family. He remembers the peace and unity that used to stand between them, remembers the days he spent in gardens and forests with the other archangels. Michael can imagine the feel of the sunlight on his face as his siblings laugh from somewhere, can almost hear the rushing water and humming birds. But the memories are bittersweet, and Gabriel watches him with a heavy sadness in his eyes. 

Michael sees red. He feels anger and uncertainty and desperation, and, for the first time, he vividly feels. Hs fist clenches, and his jaw becomes tense, but the archangel says nothing as his little brother gives a little sigh. 

The wind picks up around them, feathers of wings catching in the current. Gabriel's eyes plead with his, begging him to accept this choice. Telling him that, despite his leave, he would always love his brothers, no matter what. His face turns sadder when he can't read the expression on Michael's face. He turns his back, wings stretched out as he mutters something quietly under his breath. Then, in a beating of strong grace and the howling of the wind, God's Messenger is gone.

Michael sinks to his knees, defeated as an unnatural silence grows around him. He doesn't weep, doesn't hold himself. He merely watches the spot where his younger brother once stood, as if expecting him to return, before shaking his head, rising to his feet. After all, Gabriel hd always favoured Lucifer. 

Surely, he would be the next to fall.


End file.
